Urtasun and bullfighting, between illegality, half-truths and abuse of energy | The bull, by the horns | Culture | EUROtoday

It isn’t essential to be a authorized skilled to suspect that the suppression of the National Bullfighting Award is a flagrant illegality, and that its total justification is predicated on ideological points, half-truths and abuse of energy.

And you don't have to grasp bulls to indicate disbelief and astonishment on the silence of the bullfighting sector over this unprecedented assault on bullfighting. No one, neither the bullfighters, nor the businessmen, nor the cattle breeders, nor the followers have raised their voice; not even the Fundación Toro de Lidia, which opens the best way for any anti-bullfighting individual to commit an unlawful act, as has simply occurred.

Firstly, the choice of the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, contravenes every one of many rules of Law 18/2013 that regulates bullfighting as cultural heritage.

The preamble to this regulation, printed within the BOE on November 13, 2013, states that “bullfighting is part of the common historical and cultural heritage of all Spaniards,” and provides that “the cultural character of bullfighting is indisputable and deserves to be preserved as a treasure of our country.” And within the following paragraph it emphasizes that “bullfighting is an artistic manifestation in itself, unrelated to ideologies.”

The suppression of the National Bullfighting Award contravenes Law 18/2013 and Article 46 of the Constitution

Further on, in its article 3, it states that “the public authorities shall guarantee the conservation of bullfighting and promote its enrichment, in accordance with the provisions of article 46 of the Constitution”, which underlines the next: “The public authorities shall guarantee the conservation and promote the enrichment of the historical, cultural and artistic heritage of the peoples of Spain and of the assets that comprise it, whatever their legal regime and ownership. The criminal law shall punish attacks against this heritage”.

It is evident that the aim of a nationwide award is to preserve, protect and enrich the corresponding cultural materials, and its elimination goals at exactly the other.

In the case of bullfighting, the minister doesn’t consider that it’s tradition, however fairly animal abuse and torture, and, consequently, has determined to abolish the award.

But, after all, in a state of legislation like ours, the legislation emanates from well-liked sovereignty and doesn’t enable conceptual adjustments based mostly on the ideology of every citizen. The legislation is enforced, nothing extra. And if one doesn’t agree with its content material, authorized mechanisms are established for its modification or elimination; however each citizen should settle for it whereas it’s in drive. And whoever doesn’t achieve this can’t be known as a democrat, violates a basic responsibility and commits a criminal offense.

Whether Ernest Urtasun likes it or not, bullfighting is tradition and never abuse. And nobody can exchange one idea with one other; not even the Minister of Culture, who is known as upon, as a public authority, by Article 46 of the Constitution to advertise the enrichment of cultural heritage.

On the opposite hand, the change within the ministerial order that abolishes the National Prize is predicated on explicit ideological points and half-truths to justify the choice.

In a state of legislation like ours, all residents are obliged to adjust to the legal guidelines that emanate from well-liked sovereignty.

The BOE says that the elimination of the Prize is “justified by the need to adapt it to the evolution of the creative and cultural sector in response to social demands”; and that sure actions linked to bullfighting or particular parts of them “are rejected by broad sectors of society because they are considered an unacceptable form of violence against animals”.

It could also be true if the BOE says so, however not the entire reality. What is the evolution of the inventive sector? Who determines what society calls for? On what foundation does the ministry declare that bullfighting is rejected 'by broad sectors'? (“If you can't convince them, confuse them,” mentioned an American president.)

And it’s the ministry itself that solutions.

Last May, when Ernest Urtasun introduced his intention to abolish the award, Culture sources informed this newspaper that “only 1.9 percent of the Spanish population had attended a bullfight between 2021 and 2022. What they did not clarify is that, first, the fieldwork was carried out between March 2021 and February 2022, as recorded in the Survey of Cultural Habits and Practices belonging to both years, published by the Ministry itself; and, second, those dates coincide with the COVID-19 pandemic, a period in which few bullfights were held and the capacity of the squares was very limited.

It is true, however, that according to the same survey, attendance at bullfights fell from 9.8 percent in the period 2006-2007 to 8 percent in 2018-2019, and the corresponding figure for 2023 is not yet known.

Between March 2021 and February 2022, only 1.9 percent of the population attended a bullfight, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic

There is one more argument: the minister boasts that his decision has received more than 90 percent of “citizen support.” But he’s not referring to a nationwide session on the problem, however to the three,268 communications, first, after which to the 215, that had been obtained by the ministry in the course of the public info interval to which any drafting of recent laws should be topic. In different phrases, official “citizen support” for the suppression order is proscribed to greater than 90 p.c of three,483 communications from people and authorized entities.

It could be very stunning and daring {that a} public official validates this information as an argument of authority to endorse the modification of a ministerial order.

But this matter accommodates one other shock that’s no much less hanging: the suppression has gone just about unnoticed by the world of bullfighting. No consultant skilled physique, with the Fundación Toro de Lidia on the head, nor any fan organisation, has expressed its intention to enchantment this ministerial order. In different phrases, the National Bullfighting Award issues a lot much less to them than to the minister, who, a minimum of, has taken the difficulty to seek out arguments to show his militant anti-bullfighting right into a victory towards the sector. The late politician Antonio García-Trevijano already mentioned it: “Politicians do what they want because the people do not do what they should.”

The actuality is that bullfighting has been robbed of a nationwide prize that was rightly awarded to it due to its cultural character. And the assault has been perpetrated by a minister who, earlier than taking workplace, knew of the existence of a protecting legislation that he has determined to disregard. A minister who has no qualms about breaking the legislation with a brief and measured bullfight, which has all of the hallmarks of an abuse of energy; and it’s well-known that whoever acts with extra of authority or abuses it’s an authoritarian, which is synonymous with despotic, tyrannical and totalitarian.

Politicians do what they need as a result of…